Mountain Dew - Johnson City Dew

Yesterday a package arrived at my door filled with hay and Mountain Dew paraphernalia.  It was a promotional kit telling me that I had the ability to choose the name and label art of Mountain Dew’s new malt flavored soda.  The soda was released in Johnson City, TN (the birthplace of Mountain Dew) as Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold, but now that it was going nationwide they needed a few new regional names and can art to go along with their product.

Anytime something is packaged in "hay" you know you're in for a treat

Here’s what it had inside.

Today I learned that Mystery Can + Free Awesome Markers make me giggle out of happiness

Now the contest ends today and I didn’t feel up to the task of creating amazing label art, but I did what I could.  If you’re a talented artist, or just bored, head on over to YourMaltDew.com and submit your entry.  As for the names they’ve already held the first contest for those so the job I was tasked with was to choose the best of three for my region.  Being from Texas I’m bundled into the “South” region where my name choices were the following:  Mountain Dew Southern Pride, Blue Ridge Dew, and Mountain Dew Southern Gold.  I don’t particularly like any of those names, but I have no one to blame for myself since I didn’t submit a name of my own.  Overall the best name in my opinion comes from the “Southwest” region with Mountain Dew Miner’s Malt.  I eventually chose Blue Ridge Dew as my name of choice for my region and started to think about my label art which you can see below.  With my terrible version of Twist scrawled in Sharpie on a can label a question popped into my head.  “If this soda doesn’t have a name, what do I call it in my review?”  Well I figured the best thing to do in such a unique situation was to use the original name for it, Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold (which honestly is better than ANY of the regional names in my opinion since the name holds a history.)

The likeness is so... so... so... so-so

I must be up front with you and say that I’ve yet to drink a “malt” soda that I enjoyed at all.  Now I will say that I’m more optimistic towards Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold just because it carries the “Dew” moniker, but still quite skeptical of the equation Malt + Dew = Tasty.  Since the can I received has no label, besides the amazing one I made, I can’t tell you what the ingredients are so you’ll have to research that on your own as it’s about my bed time.  Pretty much everything else you need to know was covered above so I figure it’s time to take a swig.  Onward!

The first time I smelled it I immediately thought of a Beer/Mtn Dew combination.  Frankly this scared me a bit since I hate the taste of all alcoholic beverages so I took another whiff and this time inhaled a lime/Mtn Dew scent with a hint of skunk.  Needless to say I’m not running down “Excited Lane” at this point, more like a cautious stroll down “Worried Blvd.”  My nose has told me a few white lies in the past so I’m just going to hope that’s what it’s doing now.

Congratulations to Mountain Dew on making the best tasting “malt soda” I’ve had to date.  The “Dew” flavor is thankfully the lead in this eclectic play with malt starring as the plucky sidekick.  While my nose is reminded of the skunk it smelled a paragraph ago every time I take a drink, my taste buds quickly erase that memory and replace it with an interesting hybrid.  This tastes like they took Mountain Dew and combined it with the flavor of lemon peel and beer.  It’s a little bitter, but nothing that will keep you from coming back for another drink.  Mountain Dew Johnson City Gold does remind me of beer, but not so much that I’m turned away by it.  Like I said earlier, I never got a taste for it, but the citrus “Dew” taste beats out the flavor of beer.  That and the fact that it’s non-alcoholic helps out as well. 

Is this a soda something I’ll buy once it hits stores in my area?  No, probably not, but I am excited that a soda company is doing something daring and different.  I can definitely see a market this will succeed in even if it might be niche.  If you like mountain dew or beer (not necessarily combined, but it wouldn’t hurt if you did) then I’d give this a shot.  Heck, if you’ve never had a “malt soda” and always wanted to try one I’d say this is the best starter “malt soda” available in terms of taste.  Look for the one with the lizard on the can… and then get out of my house.  Oh, and remember if you want to try your hand at label making head on over to YourMaltDew.com

~A

This beverage supplied to us by Mountain Dew

Like looking into a mirror